British Airways agent arrested for SpiceJet hoax call, reveals ‘malicious plan’

After obtaining a diploma in tour and travels from IGNOU in 2020, the accused has been working as a trainee with British Airways in DLF Qutub Plaza Gurugram for the last seven months.

The Delhi Police on Friday arrested a trainee ticketing agent of British Airways for a hoax bomb call to a SpiceJet flight on Thursday. SpiceJet said a call received on Thursday about a bomb in its Delhi-Pune flight was later declared a hoax.

Abhinav Prakash, 24, with Delhi Police personnel.

The call was received at the SpiceJet reservation office about a bomb in the aircraft scheduled to operate flight SG 8938 (Delhi-Pune). At that time, boarding of passengers for the flight had not started, an airline spokesperson said in a statement on Friday. Following the call, the aircraft was moved to an isolation bay and was thoroughly inspected by security officials.

"Nothing suspicious was found. The call was later declared as hoax," the spokesperson said.

The police said the accused has been identified as Abhinav Prakash, 24, a resident of Dwarka Sector 22. After obtaining a diploma in tour and travels from IGNOU in 2020, he has been working as a trainee with British Airways in DLF Qutub Plaza Gurugram for the last seven months.

“On being subjected to sustained custodial interrogation the accused disclosed that his childhood friends namely Rakesh @ Bunty and Kunal Sehrawat, who recently went on a road trip to Manali, became friends with two girls in Manali. Both the girls were departing today to Pune via flight No. SG-8938 of Spicejet Airlines. His friends told him that they wanted to spend some more time with their girlfriends and instigated the accused to find out a plan to somehow delay their departure from Delhi,” the Delhi Police said in a statement.

“In pursuance of the instigation, all three formulated a malicious plan of making a hoax bomb call at the call center of Spicejet Airlines, with an ulterior motive of getting the flight canceled. The accused immediately called Spicejet Airline customer care phone number from his mobile phone and passed on the message that ‘there is a bomb in flight No. SG-8938’. Thereafter when the Spicejet officials tried to reach him he stopped picking up their calls. The accused person to boost their false bravado contacted the girls who were onboard and when they came to know that the flight has been delayed/stopped, they even celebrated the execution of their malevolent act," it added.

The police further stated that when the news of Prakash's arrest reached Kunal Sehrawat and Rakesh they fled from their addresses and are at large at present.